Kamoro culture back from brink of extinction

Kamoro culture back from brink of extinction

By Gus Kairupan

TIMIKA, Irian Jaya (JP): Possibly, probably, maybe, perhaps
and more such words and sentences that indicate anything but
solid certainty. If you were to read an account on Irian Jaya's
background, say, as a foreword to a more detailed essay on that
part of the island of New Guinea, you would notice that it rather
teems with such words: probably 200 languages; some 1,800 species
of insects; perhaps most are barely unknown; maybe this, possibly
that.

Will Irian Jaya ever be fully revealed? Of course, but your
guess is just as good as anyone else's as to when this will
occur.

A lot is already known about Indonesia's easternmost province,
but there is vastly more that is not, and it covers practically
every aspect of the place: flora, fauna, customs, people, their
languages. Did you know that as recently as 1987 two
never-before-known groups of people emerged out of isolation? Who
is to say that these are the last ethnic groups in Irian Jaya to
step out of the jungle?

Yet New Guinea has not escaped the notice of the world
outside. There exist accounts from the distant past of some of
the products of the island such as seafood, medicinal bark,
plumes of the birds of paradise and other things, which made
their way to other parts of Indonesia as well as China and even
France.

But apart from a vague "from the far east", those on the
receiving end could not be expected to have a clear picture of
products' place of origin. Trade has been going on for quite a
long time, as did some mixing between native Irianese and ethnic
groups from other parts of Indonesia. But, by and large, the
island remained an enigma for quite a long time.

Gradually, however, the shrouds of mystery began to lift, not
least because of the voyages from Western countries -- Portugal
in particular -- that started about halfway through the second
millennium. The purpose of these voyages in Indonesia is well
known: the Spice Islands. New Guinea then became a more concrete
entity to these seafarers from Portugal (and later, the English,
Spanish and Dutch), but though it loomed large in the region,
attention was focused on a handful of minuscule spice producing
islands, among others Ambon and Banda, located a stone's throw
west of Irian.

Sightings and landings were made by Portuguese and Spanish
seafarers during the third decade of the 16th century, Dutchman
Jan Carstensz sighted the snow-covered mountain range that runs
through central Irian in 1632, and in 1770 Captain Cook's landing
party at the Asmat territory "was sent packing with volleys of
arrows".

There was contact, but apart from the mingling in coastal
areas with peoples from other islands, there seemed not to have
been any deliberate move to occupy New Guinea. Attempts by the
British and Dutch during the late 18th and early 19th century to
establish a more permanent presence met with failure, but the
turn of the century saw the beginning of just such a presence
taking shape in the area.

At that time there were three Western powers sharing the
island, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany, so colonial
politicking would certainly be a major consideration, more than
whatever the island could offer for international markets.

Kamoro

Today numbering about 16,000, the Kamoro tribe occupies a
portion of an area located more or less in the middle of Irian
Jaya's southern coastal area, stretching about 300 km from Etna
Bay eastwards to the Otokwa river. The river runs some 40 km east
of the port of Amamapare, the exit point of copper, gold and
silver concentrate mined by PT Freeport Indonesia Company. The
area occupied by the Kamoro belongs to a larger group known as
the Mimika.

The tribe has had contacts with the outside world as far back
as the 17th century but until missionaries arrived in the 19th
century, these were far and few between. The missions were, at
least during that era, the only established presence in New
Guinea. Administrative order (i.e. the tools of Dutch, British
and German colonial rule) came about during the first years of
the 20th century, and helped intensify proselytizing activities.

Some benefits may have resulted from time these activities,
but they also brought about a far more serious consequence: the
loss of many features of Kamoro culture and traditions, among
others those connected with rites of passage.

Longhouses, the traditional living quarters of the Kamoro,
were destroyed and they were made to live in houses for
individual families.

Another highly developed talent of the Kamoro is wood carving,
but this art, too, began to languish because of the bans imposed
by missionaries, and later by government regulations after Irian
Jaya became part of Indonesia.

For much more than half a century, Kamoro art, culture and
traditions teetered on the brink of extinction. But times change,
and so did attitudes on the part of the missionaries and
authorities.

PT Freeport Indonesia, which operates in the area which
includes the traditional area of the Kamoro, claims that reviving
the culture of the native tribes in the contract of work area is
part of the company's social development program.

The company, a target of much criticism regarding its
environment practices and relations with local communities, also
claims it has to rely for its workforce on the tribes whose
homeland lies in the company's area of operations.

In fact, the company has reaped benefits from the knowledge of
the Kamoro. When the environmental department was at a loss about
how to stem subsiding of dikes and berms in the experimental
ponds, it was the Kamoro who came up with the idea of using sago
tree trunks instead.

But more than any other activity, it is artistic expression
that helps restore or rediscover one's cultural identity. Lately,
there has been a wave of efforts to revive many aspects of native
Indonesian artistic expressions, most prominent of which would be
the series of recordings produced by the Masyarakat Seni
Pertunjukan Indonesia (Indonesian Society for the Performing
Arts) of the myriad variety of musical styles in this country.
Assistance for this project came from the Smithsonian Institution
and the Ford Foundation, whilst for the revival of Kamoro arts.

PT Freeport Indonesia showed their interest in the project by
organizing the first Kamoro Arts & Culture Festival, that ran
recently at the village of Hitipau, some 30 kilometers southwest
of the town of Timika. Participants came from all 42 Kamoro
villages in the area. A dance festival, canoe races and an art
auction were the major programs of the festival.

Canoes play an important part in the lives of the Kamoro whose
villages are near either a river or the sea. The canoe has been
and probably still is the most important mode of transport for
them.

Like the Asmat tribe, the Kamoro certainly do not suffer from
a lack of creativity and imagination. At this stage the Asmat and
Kamoro appear to be the only tribes that stand out as carvers,
with the former enjoying wider appreciation around the globe
since more than thirty years. But after this first Festival it
will be only a matter of time for the art of the Kamoro to
achieve equal prominence in as well as outside Indonesia.